Case No Country Mandate(s) Summary of the allegation transmitted Reply KAZ 1/2014 31/01/2014 Kazakhstan JUA Freedom of expression; Freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; Freedom of religion; Human rights defenders; Independence of judges and lawyers; Minority issues; 28/03/2014 Alleged persecution of several Jehovah’s Witnesses for alleged illegal missionary 07/04/2014 activity. According to the information received, on 23 November 2013, Mr. Yuriy Toporov, a 36 years old lawyer, was arrested by police and subsequently charged with illegal missionary activities when he participated in a weekly peaceful religious meeting of Jehovah’s Witnesses. If convicted, Mr. Toporov is at risk of being deported from the Republic of Kazakhstan to Russia. Serious concern is expressed that the arrest and charges against Mr. Toporov occurred in retaliation for his professional activities as a lawyer and human rights defender and may be part of a crackdown on and persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses, which is allegedly ongoing since the adoption of amendments to the Law on “Religious Activity and Religious Associations” on 11 October 2011. Allegedly, other targeted Jehovah’s Witnesses include Mr. Dmitriy Bukin, Mr. Nurzhan Agalkov, Ms. Nadezhda Shefer, Mr. Sergey Chuvashkin, Mr. Eduard Malykhin and Ms. Irina Malykhin. SAU 2/2014 31/01/2014 Saudi Arabia JUA Freedom of expression; Freedom of religion; Summary executions; Alleged detention and prosecution of a blogger and organizer of a conference to mark 12/02/2014 the “day of liberalism” on charges of insulting Islam and “apostasy”. According to the information received, on 17 June 2012, Mr. Raef Badawi was arrested in Jeddah after organizing a conference to mark the “day of liberalism” and was subsequently detained in a prison in Briman. In July 2012, a trial against Mr. Badawi started before the General Court in Jeddah, with jurisdiction over apostasy cases, but was later referred to the Criminal Court of Jeddah as the General Court decided that Mr. Badawi should not be tried for apostasy. The charges brought against Mr. Badawi relate to a number of articles he had written and published on his website and on social media deemed to be insulting Islam. On 29 July 2013, the Criminal Court in Jeddah convicted Mr. Badawi under the information technology law of “founding a liberal website”, “adopting liberal thought” and for insulting Islam. Mr. Badawi was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison, and 600 lashes. On 11 December 2013, the Court of Appeal ruled that the case should be reviewed again, dropped the apostasy charges, and sent it back to the Criminal Court in Jeddah, which in turn remanded Mr. Badawi to the General Court on charges of “apostasy”, an “offence” punishable by death. A/HRC/26/21 50 Date Type